(These videos are best when watched on a smart phone)

Watch Video #1 of OG rocking on her Strider here:
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Watch Video #2 of OG rocking on her Strider here:
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BABY ON A STRIDER, PART 3

By Anne Roberts Barnes

Wow! We’ve just celebrated one whole year with our girl, Olivia Grace Barnes,a.k.a. OG. She’s growing by leaps and bounds, impressing us every day! In the previous (Part 2) Strider story, Olivia had just begun to pull-to-stand, stand on her own for about 30 seconds, cruise around the house by holding onto furniture, and seemed to understand some cause-and-effect while playing with her Strider bike.

The change from a 10-month-old to our now 12-month-old has been drastic, to say the least. OG still considers her Strider bike (with rocking base) as one of her favorite toys. It’s an item that seems to grow with her as she passes through different stages of development, which is really neat, because we haven’t even taken it off the base yet! It’s truly a gift that keeps giving.

Olivia’s pull-to-stand has now become a thing of the past. These days, she just gets up from a crouching position with perfect balance, not needing to hold onto anything. Two months ago, she could stand by herself for a short time. Now, I can’t get her to sit down and stop moving if I try! The cruising she had just mastered in the last update has turned into full-on walking and running. Lastly, her realization of cause and effect while playing with her bike months ago is now very clear, as she keeps going back to the bike to bang, rock, push… over and over and over again.

Since the last update, she went through a funny phase of trying to eat or lick the bike, which had me scratching my head and chuckling a bit. Thankfully, this was a VERY short period of time and only lasted a few days. The neat textures that she was previously exploring with her hands apparently needed to be explored with her mouth. I watched her closely to monitor her safety and let her investigate and explore the bike however she felt she needed to. I’m glad that after a few licks and chomps, she completed her investigation and was back to having fun with the Strider normally again!

Without a doubt, Olivia knows she is supposed to get up onto the bike, just like mom and dad put her up onto the seat. She had started to lift her leg a few months ago in attempt to step up, but now, she will step up onto the rocking base or onto the swing arm. She can’t mount the bike on her own yet, but I’m thinking that will come in the next few months.

One big change is that OG can now “rock” the bike on her own while sitting on the seat. I put the word “rock” in quotes, because she isn’t truly rocking back and forth yet, but she knows that if she pushes, pulls, and jerks on the handlebars, the bike will wiggle around underneath her and she thinks that’s pretty funny. Sometimes, she looks like she’s imitating a dirt track rider, as she scoots way back on the seat, crouches down, and tucks in tight during her rocking.

Before becoming a parent, I told myself that I’d never be over-protective. Speaking of that…as covered in Part 2, we had put zip ties on the wheels to keep them from turning while the bike was on the rocker base. After a few months of watching OG play with the bike and while talking with some fellow Strider parents, I came to a realization: While we had good intentions when we zip-tied the wheels, it really wasn’t the best thing to do!

Just like the concept of training wheels, having the zip ties on the wheels sent a wrong message to Olivia, namely, that the wheels don’t turn. Someday, we are going to take the Strider off its rocking base and she will have to un-learn that concept, since the wheels actually DO turn. We put the zip-ties on the wheels because the wheels were slightly rotating when she grabbed them to stand up with. But, she eventually learned that the wheels weren’t a great place to hold onto anyways and she stopped using them to hold onto for stability.

I want OG to learn to be a problem-solver and I believe that children learn to be that way through trial and error in a lot of different circumstances. She is learning. And if she happens to plop down on her little bottom a few times while learning, that’s OK! This was a nice lesson for me as well. I saw that when I cut the zip-ties off, backed up, watched while she (safely) was permitted to make a few mistakes and stumble a few times, she did grasp the concept and found a better way to pull herself up or balance while holding the bike.

Parenting truly does get more and more fun each week as I see Olivia figuring out her world. I’m very proud of her. She’s a strong and active little girl and has such a sweet personality. I take her to the town park each week where a lot of local families go to play. She seems to be doing a lot of things the slightly older kids are doing, which makes me think that her time spent with her yellow Strider Bike has done her a ton of good and has propelled her ahead with what we call her “spidey-skills.” Her balance and perception seem incredible for such a young child.

As we enter into the Holiday Season, I’m not sure we can find a gift that would top how she feels about her bike (her ball popper toy is a close second). I hope many other kids will get Striders, too! We’re looking forward to getting out to the park on ours once she can scoot around on it when it’s off the rocker base. I’m excited to see the reactions of the other local kids and parents we’ve met!

Thanks for reading, Happy Holidays, and we’ll touch base again when the next cluster of milestones comes. Bye for now!